by Amelia Jade
Hannah screwed her eyes shut as she saw the other shifter wrap his hands around the man’s neck and twist violently.
She opened them after a few heartbeats, and it was over. The only men visible were Josh, his team, and coming out of the car, her brother.
“Chad!” she cried, practically jumping out of the truck and rushing forward as he stood up tall, rolling his shoulders.
“Hannah,” he said with relief, sagging into her arms as they briefly hugged each other.
Stepping back, she gave him a questioning glance, hoping he would understand what she was able to ask. It couldn’t be voiced out loud, not with the others around, but she had to know. Her heart thudded as Chad looked back at her, but then he shook his head slightly, and Hannah relaxed.
“Time to go,” one of the big shifters said, his voice carrying authority.
Josh moved close, and before she could stop him his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Hannah stiffened, inhaling sharply at the closeness of his presence. Her entire body tingled, and she had to fight against warring emotions within her. Should she lean back into him? Or did she shrug his arm off and risk conveying that she wasn’t interested?
Why did he have to be so damn cute? This would be so much easier if he was a hideous brute!
“Come on,” he said, “Chad is going to go with Jared, my team leader,” he said, indicating the big man who had spoken first. “He’ll be safe.”
Hannah hesitated.
“Hey,” he said gently, tugging her back to the truck. “I told you we’d rescue him, and I was telling the truth, wasn’t I?”
She nodded reluctantly.
“I’m telling the truth here too, but we need to go.”
This time Hannah let herself be pulled along by Josh. As they started walking his arm slipped away, and she allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. They climbed into the car and roared away from the scene. In the back of her head, she had questions about the dead men, and how they were going to handle that, but her concerns were outweighed by the fact that they had managed to get Chad back safely.
She shuddered in her seat at the thought of what might have happened if he had been taken back to their base.
“Everything okay over there?” Josh asked, concern tinging his voice as he glanced over at her.
“I’m fine,” she said immediately, then tried to switch the subject. “How did you manage to organize that? I didn’t see you talking to anyone.” She was referring to the boxing-in maneuver with the rest of his team.
“I had them on standby at the start of the day, just in case,” he admitted. “Each of our trucks has trackers in it, so it was more a case of them figuring out what was going on. We work together a lot, so they knew what I needed.”
Hannah nodded, looking out her window as they came alongside one of the trucks. She sat upright and pressed her face against it.
“There’s a woman driving that truck!” she exclaimed, recognizing the deep blue paint job as the same one that had cut off the car earlier.
Josh chuckled. “Yeah, that’s Shay. She’s mated to Justin, and in a prior life, she was a race car driver. I’m decent behind the wheel, but my God can that girl drive!” he exclaimed.
She was stunned. “You have women that work with you?”
The big shifter raised an eyebrow at her. “My immediate boss, the head of our group here, is a woman,” he told her. “She’s the biggest badass I know.”
Hannah’s jaw dropped open at that revelation.
“Besides myself of course,” he added slyly.
She coughed, trying to cover up her laugh, but it was useless. She giggled happily, allowing herself just that one moment. That was it. Then she would clamp back down on her emotions.
Hannah glanced over at Josh, meeting his eyes without realizing what she was doing. They were still at the stoplight, so he wasn’t focused on the road. Instead his silver-blue eyes were latched on to her, boring deep past her momentarily lowered barriers, a penetrating look that she felt in her soul.
The urge to reach out and touch him was overwhelming. She could see his hand twitch, and knew he was feeling the same. The longer they spent together, the stronger her attraction to him was becoming. He wasn’t just some hulking gargoyle of a bodyguard. He was smart, quick-witted, and impossibly gorgeous. It wasn’t fair. Why did he have to be a shifter?
Relief flooded through her as the light turned green and Josh was forced to look away—eventually—and focus on the road.
She had no idea where they were going, but wherever it was, it was too far away. Hannah needed to put some space between them immediately, or she was going to find herself giving in to her desires.
And that would be disastrous.
***
Twenty minutes later, Josh pulled the truck through a swift-opening door and into the side of a nondescript warehouse in the middle of an industrial part of the city. Other buildings rose up around them looking much the same to her eye.
She whistled softly as she stepped down from the truck. Several more trucks were parked in what was obviously an equipment garage. Off to one side two sleek, powerful, and speedy-looking motorcycles sat gleaming in the off-white light streaming through the windows.
That wasn’t what caught her attention though. At the back of the garage was what had to be an extremely expensive and fast sports car of foreign design. Hannah had never seen anything like it before, but it was painted with a metallic red design that didn’t ask for attention. It demanded it.
“Whose is that beautiful machine?” she asked, admiring the dual exhaust and low, sweeping bodywork.
Josh laughed. “That again, would be Shay’s. I have no idea where she got it from, but when we need to go somewhere fast, let me tell you, nothing comes close. The g-forces when she punches the accelerator are rough.”
Hannah smiled. “I’ll have to ask her to take me for a ride,” she joked, looking around at the storage lockers and racks filled with various types of tools and other equipment.
“You weren’t kidding about fighting a war, were you?” she asked softly. “There’s enough stuff here for an entire army.”
The place was filled with all manner of equipment. The boxes and crates disappeared back into the darkness, stacked in every open space that could be found.
“I wish he were kidding,” another voice said from deeper in the warehouse.
Hannah spun as a tall, strong-looking woman strode out of a previously unnoticed doorway and headed toward them.
“Unfortunately for all of us, he isn’t, and it looks like you’re the latest innocent victim to get caught up in it.” The woman came a halt in front of her. “Madison,” she said, sticking out her hand in greeting.
“Hannah,” she replied quickly. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
The other woman snorted humorously. “Hopefully not all of it was terrible.”
Behind them another truck slid into the garage and another big man, a shifter she presumed, disembarked.
Josh slapped a hand over his heart. “Ouch. That really hurts, Madison. Do you think that I would tell terrible stories about you?”
The other woman arched an eyebrow at the shifter.
Josh paused with his mouth open. “That was one time!” he protested with a smile. “How long are you going to hold that against me?”
“You have no idea,” the newcomer said. “She holds grudges impressively.”
“Now Connor,” Madison said as Hannah’s eyes darted back and forth between them all, taking in the easy camaraderie they all seemed to share. “If you keep talking back, you’re going to have to go to my office.”
The other shifter smirked as he passed the group by, clapping Josh on the shoulder. “If it’s anything like the last visit to your office,” he said with a wink, “count me in!”
Madison turned a bright red and fumed, though Hannah could see in her eyes the deep-seated love that she had for the bigger man.
“Men,” the woman said with
a knowing nod at Hannah, who was forced to cover up her own smile.
“So you’re the leader of all this?” Hannah asked, gesturing around them.
Madison nodded, and the three of them fell in step, following Justin deeper into the bowels of the warehouse. “I am now. The previous leader, as it turned out, had actually formed the Underground—that’s what we call ourselves, the Shifter Underground. Anyway, he was actually an enemy Agent, who brought this all together as a way to help the Agency track and identify shifters in the city. While he was in charge, we would lose one shifter for every one we rescued.” Madison shook her head in disgust.
Hannah took it all in, devouring the information, fascinated by the trust and command contained within the woman next to her. This Madison is a formidable person. She even walks like a shifter, with that slight swagger of confidence and sure-footedness. I wonder if she realizes that she’s adopted that style?
“And now?” she asked.
The leader of the Underground gave her a humorless smile. “Now we kick ass. The Agency is on the run and we have free rein of the city.”
Hannah noticed Josh frowned at that statement, but said nothing. Madison showed them into a room already occupied by the others, including her brother. Hannah exchanged a quick hug with him.
“What the hell happened today?” Chad said once everyone had taken a chair.
“My best guess,” Josh said, speaking up first as he was the only member of the Underground that had actually been present. “Is that the Agency paid off the security agency you hired for today, and slipped some of their own men into your detail.”
Hannah was watching her brother as Josh spoke. Something was off with the way he was reacting to what was being said. It rattled around in her mind, right on the tip of her tongue.
“Yes,” Jared said, the big shifter leader chiming in. “Those men who kidnapped him were definitely Extremis Agents, no doubts about that.”
“Extremis Agents?” she mouthed at Josh, not understanding.
“Remember that serum I told you about?” he said softly.
She nodded, shivering at the idea.
“The name for that serum is Extremis,” he supplied.
Hannah understood. Then it hit her. She understood now. But she needed to get Josh to explain that to her. He’d also had to explain who the Agency was to her.
Her brother hadn’t even batted an eye at the mention of either the Agency or the Extremis Agents.
“You knew,” she accused, staring across the table at Chad.
“What?” he asked in surprise.
“You knew, all this time,” she raged. “That this Agency was operating here in King City. You knew, and you brought us here anyway? Without telling me? What the hell, Chad!”
Her brother winced, looking unhappy. “Listen, Hannah. I’m sorry, I—”
“That’s why you hired him to look after me. It wasn’t just in case, it was because you knew about all this!”
“I was trying to keep you calm. After the last time, I didn’t want you to worry,” he said, his eyes focusing on her sharply as he spoke.
Hannah sat back hard into the chair. She didn’t want to be reminded of the last city they had been to, and he knew it. Throwing that at her hadn’t been fair.
“I can look after myself,” she growled. “But you have to tell me about these things dammit!” She slammed her hand down on the plastic folding table in front of them, causing it to vibrate from the impact.
Josh reached out and laid a hand on top of hers. Hannah was too angry just then to notice, until the sensation of skin on skin reached out and slapped her brain. She jerked noticeably, but her hand didn’t move.
“You knew about all this,” Josh said slowly, his eyes tracking from Hannah over to Chad. “But you declined to mention it to anyone?” His voice dropped an octave, and she could see the blood rising to his face. “You put me in danger with your stupidity. But even worse,” his voice exploded, “You put her in danger too. Your own sister!” he roared, standing up so quickly the chair behind him went flying across the room.
“The security agency said they’d be able to handle it. They’re trained mercenaries, not some little dinky city rent-a-cop outfit,” Chad said meekly.
Josh gripped the plastic table so tightly the material crumpled under one of his hands as he leaned across the table toward her brother. Hannah would normally have intervened, but right now she was pissed at her brother for attempting to protect her that way.
“Of all the stupid, idiotic, half-brained—”
“That’s enough Josh.” Madison’s voice cracked through the room like a whip.
Hannah arched an eyebrow as the big shifter whirled to face his boss, and for a moment she thought he was going to challenge her. But Madison simply stared him down for a moment before jerking her head.
“Of course,” Josh said, trying to restrain the anger from seeping into his voice, but not succeeding entirely. Then he spun and stormed from the room.
Jared sighed and he and the rest of his team filed out after Josh. Chad got up and left through a door on the other side, leaving Hannah alone with the two women.
“You must be Shay,” she said after a moment, dipping her head at the woman on the far side of the table from her. “I like your car.”
The other woman stared at her for a moment, then barked a laugh. “Yes, I’m Shay. Sorry, but I didn’t get your name.”
“Hannah,” she said, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “So you two really do have integral parts here,” she said with admiration. “I didn’t think shifters would ever allow human women to work with them, to be put into harm’s way like that.”
Shay and Madison shared a look, ending with Shay shrugging. “It’ll come out sooner or later,” she said.
Madison nodded. “They don’t exactly have much choice with me,” she told Hannah.
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m not human,” Madison said. “At least, not anymore.”
Not anymore? “What exactly does that mean, if I may ask?”
The tall leader smiled gently. “Well, apparently the Extremis serum comes in several varieties. One of them, the more popular one, bonds with the shifter DNA present in every half-breed. That creates people like the ones that took your brother.”
“I’m following so far,” she said.
“Well, there is another, far more rare serum. It bonds with the human DNA as well.”
“Okay,” Hannah said, trailing off, not understanding.
Madison smiled. “In essence, they created a shifter with me,” she said. “I was a half-breed before, but now I can shapeshift. I’m stronger than a normal shifter, I’m faster, I heal quicker. Everything they can do, I can do better now.”
Hannah was staring in shock now, looking like a deer in headlights, but she didn’t care. “Good for you,” she said at last. “That’s amazing. I did not think anything like that was possible.”
“It’s been...interesting,” Madison said with a chuckle. “But when Shay came along, it got a lot easier. Whereas the Sentinels—that’s the shifter team that you’ve met, by the way—couldn’t say no to me, Shay just didn’t listen. She told them she was going to be a driver, and then just never left.” There was a brief snicker. “It helps that Justin is like a puppy dog in love with her as well.”
Shay turned a little pink, but the happy smile on her face announced to Hannah that the other woman wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You’re all so happy,” she said. “I wish I could be that happy.”
Madison smiled. “Anything is possible, Hannah. I’ve seen the way Josh looks at you.”
Hannah grimaced as a dark reminder of why she could never succumb to the feelings present in Madison’s voice welled up deep within her.
“No,” she said hoarsely. “Unfortunately not everything is possible.” She looked up at the two of them. “Some things can never be.”
Chapter Seven
Josh
“Josh.”
His team leader’s voice carried down the hallway after him as he made his way back to the garage.
“Hey,” Jared said, catching up with him, a hand landing on his shoulder.
He shrugged it off and continued walking, but Jared cut in front of him, placing both hands on his shoulders as he looked at him. “What was that all about?”
“Nothing,” he said, stopping but refusing to meet his leader’s eyes.
“Bullshit,” Connor said as he came up alongside them, followed by Justin. “That was some fire there, man. That’s not normal for you. What gives?”
Josh looked up and around. The hallway was really just canvas drawn over a metal frame, so he couldn’t lash out at the wall, even though he wished he could.
“They put her in danger,” Justin said slowly as he looked at his friend.
Not seeing a point in denying it, Josh nodded.
“You fell for the job?” Connor said with a chuckle. “I can sympathize with that one.”
Josh snarled, but it was all noise, no anger. “It’s complicated.”
Connor and Justin shared a look, then they burst into laughter.
“What?” he growled, but the pair continued to guffaw loudly, bending over as the howls made their chests heave with the effort.
Josh looked at Jared. “Was it something I said?”
The big man was smiling. “I think they understand, is what that’s about.”
The pair got themselves under control. “Sorry,” Justin said with a respectful nod.
“What’s making it complicated?” Jared asked.
Josh smiled. His leader, the Alpha of the team, was a good man. He cared for his team, and when something was bugging them, they all knew he would be there to listen if they needed to talk about it, no questions asked.
“She’s not telling me something,” he explained. “I’m not sure what, but I think it’s bigger than your standard secret.” He shook his head. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve done anything, or even talked. But there’s this”—he threw his hands up—“I don’t know, attraction? It’s like fucking magnetism or something. Every time I see her, I just want to kiss her, and I have to fight myself from doing so.” He snorted. “I don’t know, in case you haven’t picked up on that yet.”